Wednesday, October 14, 2009

German Angora trivia stuff

I am enjoying the development of my newest litter. They are the first litter that I've had that is totally raised by the mother and she is doing a great job. This is her second litter, but the first one was a hybrid litter, and there were 3 of them. I suppose that was a learning litter! But she had sufficient instinct to use the nest box, and raised them all without any losses, and is likely raising this litter without any losses. One of the trickiest times for baby rabbits, I've found, is when they start eating pellets, and gradually weaning from mother's milk. In about 2 weeks I will do my first evaluation on the litter and sex them. They are a product of brother sister breeding so inbred this one generation, which would not be my first choice but I wanted to emphais the mother's line instead of the father's line so I chose the brother over the father for a stud. I really need to get an outside bloodline but so far it is not working out. I've had another doe Abby, who is the result of a brother sister breeding and she has been an excellent rabbit...great mothering ability, fertility, and high producing wool and the daughters I've kept from her have been as well....plus she is so milky that she is my main foster mother.
The mother of the new litter is just 13 months old so I consider she is doing an excellent job. This is a far cry from all my previous purebred German does, who either did not do the job right, in the birthing, in the mothering, in the milkiness, or got sick themselves and died before they could reproduce. I will definetly keep a doe from this litter. Next time I will talk about angora fiber. ( I hope).

Sunday, September 20, 2009

The latest in German Angora rabbits


Here is Little Joe at 3 months old already. His parents are Absarokee and Bitterrootret. He shows great promise of nice black silky soft wool. He is ready for his first haircut.
This sweet little baby is the same Little Joe but shown at 6 weeks old. He is my latest German Angora hybrid buck, and hs is a lovely black. He too is over 98% German Angora, and as you can see by his blue eye he carries the chinchilla gene as well as the black gene.

To the right is Snowcrest with a big black spot of tattoo ink in her ear at 6 weeks old. look how much she grew between 6 weeks and 3 months.





The photo to the left is Snowcrest at just a little over 3 months old and she has already had her first shearing to remove baby wool. It's normally discarded as it's so soft, but it can be handspun to make a delicate and soft yarn that made into knit garments that will get little use, such as a neck scarf. She is a purebred German Angora from Winter's Dream and Snowstorm.

This is Jack, at 3 months, he is over 98% German Angora and so is called a German Hybrid. It's amazing how fast they grow.




Here is Jack at only 6 weeks old. The number is his ear tattoo






This is a newborn shown at day 7






Here is a photo of the purebred German Angora litter of bunnies born this month and they are about 5 days old here. They are born nearly hairless at birth and you can see that they are already getting furred.





This is a pic of Winter Storms as he was as a youngster. I need to get some adult pictures. He is the sire of the upcoming baby littler that I am going to show.


















This photo shows Snowstorm; she is the mother of SOW.

Angora photo updates







Here are some of the most recent photos I've taken of the Angora population here. The top photo shows Winter Dreams as he was at 5 months of age. He is my senior purebred buck here and he will be five years old next year.
The middle photo is Snows of Winter (SOW) as she was as a baby, and then as she is now as an adult. She is a shade over 1 year old and has had 11 babies. Amazing rabbit

Saturday, September 19, 2009

How time flies

It's been ages it seems since I have had time to post to this blog. Maybe I can start catching up. We've had a cooler, later, and somewhat wetter summer than normal and I have relished it. However, now in September we seem to be experiencing summer. Much hotter and very dry. the poor plants wither so bad I can hardly keep up with their watering. The garden has been growing but slowly and I just hope that the frost stays away long enough to harvest the tomatoes. The poultry have been having a good year, raising chicks, and ducklings and gunieas. Our guineas flock increase this year by 6 new ones, and they are all running wild. They do drive me slightly nuttier because I have to think of ways to keep them from eating newly sprouted greens in the garden, and they chatter continueally.............But the grasshoppers have been way down this year, and tick season was short so I credit them with that. I wish they would catch hornets! They do catch and eat mice though! Sheep wise, that status quo is about the same. We still have 4 ewes, and 1 ram. However, we are likely to add another ewe lamb and we did replace our ram. This new one is 50% Icelandic, and the rest if a border Leicester/cormo complicated cross. His wool is white, lusterous and has a nice handle.
The rabbity has been thriving and we had out first large litter of purebred German Angoras and and all raised by the mother which makes me very proud of her. We've had other purebred German Angoras before, but none that were from large litters, or that were successfully raised by their mother. I gave her the unglamorous of SOW hoping she would raise her babies as easily as a pig does and she seems to. :)
Time to go now. Hopefully pictures next time
Barbara